(Topic ID: 136070)
Saint Paul, MN
Villejuif
nice work, would suit tron as well, and seem to remember seeing something like that on a tron but wasn't sure how they did it
Thanks guys, it was really fun to figure out, got enough parts and different color led strips to do 6 more games, just have to find the time.
Quoted from swinks:would suit tron as well
Blue would look great on Tron.
Put Tron on a slow fade from Blue to Orange. Sand the edges of the protectors if you want the light a little diffused.
Quoted from jawjaw:It would be pretty cool if you were able to cut out holes or patterns in the legs to shine through. Great job!
Someone had a TRON at TPF 2 years ago that they had done this with and had it backed with EL paper.
It might have just been the design, but frankly, it looked ridiculous.
Quoted from hawkmoon:Thats so kool,will look great on a ST/le,thanks for sharing!!!!
Yes a blue will, I plan on putting then on my Pro but will have to take the factory metal ones off.
Quoted from isJ:Will vouch that these look much better in person
Thanks, with both on it looks a lot better. Hope you can make it this weekend.
Quoted from northvibe:whoa! I need to see these in person. I bet they look even better! Good work Paul!
Any weekend.
Quoted from foxtj24:You T3 really needed more Red led's. How many are in there now 400? LOL
Nice job Paul.
Probably more now, luckly these are not running off of game power. 
Quoted from Rock914:Put Tron on a slow fade from Blue to Orange.
That's a little more engineering then I know how to do.
Quoted from Rock914:Sand the edges of the protectors if you want the light a little diffused.
Hmmmmm 
1 week later
Super Nice Paul! Ill have that length in 6.3V coming to you.....another way to hook up....
Love to see you create! Now, are you taking orders?
Art
Quoted from Geocab:Avatar looks purple, however the lighting effect looks awesome. I might have to try this with my BOP.
That's just the camera, in person it's a perfect match to the game blue. I'll be putting another pair on BOP when I get more connectors in.
1 week later
You should experiment with just putting the LEDs at the bottom edge of the protector. If you sand the edges of the protector they will glow evenly. All it needs is to go up from the bottom... Harder bit is masking the led light from spilling out elsewhere
Quoted from Morydees:Love it! Once you get the BOP done and match it I might have to give something like this a shot on mine.
Well the leds only come in one color blue so what I get is what I get. I think BOP will be next.
Quoted from MustangPaul:Can't really put them at the bottom, the strip has to be put in a channel cut into the protector and it has to be a strip with many leds to have enough light to light it up. There's no way to mask the light from lighting up the entire plastic, if I did that you would see the masking around the leg and that wouldn't look good. In the picture the strip on the bottom are the ones I'm using because there are so many more leds AND because the strip is so narrow.
IMGA0740.jpg
What you are doing by cutting the channel is two things.. 1) giving an edge so the plastic can act as a light channel and 2) giving physical space for the LEDs between the leg and cabinet.
You don't get the plastic to glow by just shining lights as it.. it glows because you get light to the plastic's edges and shine light through it. That's why I said doing it from the bottom edge could be viable. The thing to experiment with is if you can get the intensity (you are using a ton of LEDs) and uniformity (the bolt cutouts, etc could cause a lack of uniformity and darker spots). If it worked, it could be a clip on from the bottom.
The plastic becomes a fiberoptic wave guide. For best results the leds need to be parallel to the plastic edge. Nice idea which could be improved with a product or two.
Quoted from Zitt:The plastic becomes a fiberoptic wave guide. For best results the leds need to be parallel to the plastic edge. Nice idea which could be improved with a product or two.
Well, you up to the challenge also? Make a pair my way and a pair your way and let's see what you come up with.
Paul,
I was actually supporting your implementation... trying to explain how it works.
I do have first hand experience that the best way to do this is to use right angle/side emitting LEDs to shine at the edges of the plastic.
However, what you've done is probably the best that can be done with off-the-shelf components (light strips / plastic protectors).
Quoted from Zitt:Paul,
I was actually supporting your implementation... trying to explain how it works.
I do have first hand experience that the best way to do this is to use right angle/side emitting LEDs to shine at the edges of the plastic.
However, what you've done is probably the best that can be done with off-the-shelf components (light strips / plastic protectors).
I know that zitt, I also know you know a lot more about this stuff then I do and was just putting a friendly challenge.
Paul, Ah... I See... a Challenge. To do this right I see two hurdles:
1) You probably need to create an Injection mold where a "channeled" Leg protector could be made repeatedly for this application. I'm not confident that a leg protector could be laser cut in a repeatable manner... then bent correctly. Based upon my recent button experience... there is going to need to be a huge market to offset the cost of the mold creation.
2) A custom PCB would need to be created to fit inside the channeled Leg protector... I'm thinking another USB programmable one would need to be created; but with side emitting LEDs. A challenge; but doable I think.
How many people would REALLY buy something like this for their machine?
Do you have any intermediate pics of this felt you applied (how it comes and how you cut it?
Also, which model LED strips did you use?
Lastly, any pics showing how it's wired? Both into a single wall charger?
Any thoughts on tying them into the game itself vs. using a wall charger? You could feed a longer wire(s) up through the speaker channel and then attach it to a 12V source, or even attach it to a 12V pin on the driver board to sync the lights to game action.
Quoted from Zitt:Paul, Ah... I See... a Challenge. To do this right I see two hurdles:
1) You probably need to create an Injection mold where a "channeled" Leg protector could be made repeatedly for this application. I'm not confident that a leg protector could be laser cut in a repeatable manner... then bent correctly. Based upon my recent button experience... there is going to need to be a huge market to offset the cost of the mold creation.
2) A custom PCB would need to be created to fit inside the channeled Leg protector... I'm thinking another USB programmable one would need to be created; but with side emitting LEDs. A challenge; but doable I think.
How many people would REALLY buy something like this for their machine?
You got it zitt, I thought about all that and it's way to expensive, I don't think the market is there, that's why I made them DIY. People can DIY them for under $20 per pair.
Quoted from wxforecaster:Do you have any intermediate pics of this felt you applied (how it comes and how you cut it?
Also, which model LED strips did you use?
Lastly, any pics showing how it's wired? Both into a single wall charger?
Any thoughts on tying them into the game itself vs. using a wall charger? You could feed a longer wire(s) up through the speaker channel and then attach it to a 12V source, or even attach it to a 12V pin on the driver board to sync the lights to game action.
The felt protectors can be found on ebay, they can be cut with a sizzers to fit. Look at the pictures above and search ebay for 1210, 30cm red (or whatever color you want) led strip. Buy the strip that looks like the narrow strip on the bottom in the picture above, they come from China so it takes a while to get them. I just use Molex connectors and run the wires taped to the bottom of the cab for the power to make it easy to take apart when you remove the legs. I also use a wall wort so I don't tax the game power supply, For example my T3 game has 7-12v, 2-5v and 3-6v add on's and I didn't want to push my luck with putting anymore draw on it so I used the wall wort. You can hook it up and wire it as you like. There are sooooo many ways to run the power, I just chose to have them on all the time. And yes I power both from a single wall wort.
2 weeks later
I like it ! makes me want to do this to all of my games. Nice job Paul, it's perfect the way you made them.
Quoted from modfather:I like it ! makes me want to do this to all of my games. Nice job Paul, it's perfect the way you made them.
Thanks, coming from you that means a lot. 
Sydney, Oz
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
